New €5.5m research centre opens at Cork's Fota Wildlife Park 

The centre will make Fota Wildlife Park Munster's largest provider of outdoor education and will lead to an expansion of the park’s informal educational and research opportunities

Fota's new €5.5m state-of-the-art Education, Conservation and Research Centre. Picture: Darragh Kane 

A new €5.5m Education, Conservation and Research Centre has been officially opened at Fota Wildlife Park in Cork — a major addition to Ireland's conservation and education capacity.

Funded by the Government through the Office of the Public Works to the tune of €2m and with €3.5m from Fota, the new centre will cater for up to 20,000 students a year, facilitating a major expansion of its educational and research opportunities in the fields of biodiversity and conservation.

It will also make Fota Wildlife Park Munster's largest provider of outdoor education and will lead to an expansion of the park’s informal educational and research opportunities.

The new ECRC features a 265-seater auditorium, an atrium, three state-of-the-art classrooms, and a dedicated research centre which will provide significant opportunities to undergraduate and postgraduate students at University College Cork and national and international third level institutions.

The 265-seater auditorium at Fota's new Education, Conservation and Research Centre. Picture: Darragh Kane 

It has been officially opened by former finance minister Michael McGrath, Minister of State for the Office of Public Works Kieran O’Donnell, and Minister of State for Nature Malcolm Noonan.

The facility, which has been operational for several months, has already welcomed thousands of students from primary, secondary, and higher education levels.

It has hosted conferences, business functions, and workshops, such as the Pure Cork Waste Not, Want Not event, a food sustainability conference in collaboration with Cork City Council and Cork County Council, and a business networking and workshop event, Sustainability Pathways run by Cobh and Harbour Chamber in association with Mallow Chamber.